If that's your takeaway from the film then you probably shouldn't be pointing fingers about not getting it.

Addidasss supports nepotism but not celebrity cameos apparently.

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) - There were a few scenes where the long tracking shots really worked, but they're too infrequent to justify that as anything other than a gimmick. I enjoyed it but it felt very tryhard in ways that didn't seem like they were trying to make a statement about the industries it's satirizing (particularly the humour). It definitely has the makings of a masterpiece but is held back by these things, leaving us with just a pretty good movie. I don't think Inarritu has it in him tbh (haven't seen Babel yet though, could be an exception). On the upside, it helped me recognize how excellent Symbiopsychotaxiplasm is.

Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome - A Thelemic parable of man, gods, and all that **** all drenched in gorgeous surreal lighting and colours. Prettier than Lucifer Rising.

River of Fundament - This is:
An epic
An opera
A satire
A book adaptation
A concert film
A procedural
Extreme
Surreal
Pornographic
A documentary

Three acts with a cast of around 1000 characters wherein writer Norman Mailer reincarnates three times into realities heavily inspired by his writings...and shit. There's a lot of shit. A man wraps a turd in gold, a transam gives birth to an engine, Milford Graves jams on a cow corpse in a sewer, someone gives birth to a bird, with each of the three acts being based on free improvisation performances that make heavy use of realistic space. One of the best films I've ever seen, highly recommended to anyone with an interest in experimental music or film who can stomach depravity (you will never be ready, might as well just jump right into the shit river).



Memoria - While visiting her sick sister in Colombia, Tilda Swinton is haunted by a recurring boom that only she appears to hear in this beautiful meditation on memory, colonialism, stolen trauma, perception, and isolation. Apichatpong's films always has intense sound design, but this movie seemed especially interested in directing your focus to the sound. Very lucky to have seen this in theatres, the whole scene at the farm is up there with Uncle Boonmee's cave scene and the Tropical Malady tiger confrontation as one of Apichatpong's best scenes. Going to try to catch it again while it's still on a theatre run.

And while I'm here, I'm pretty hyped for the Janus restoration of Inland Empire. They'll be showing that in theatres and you know I'm catching that bitch.

I love Birdman. It's a definite masterpiece to my mind. Perhaps my favorite movie of the 2010s.

You're so f*cking rule based, it hurts my brain. Rules. Rules. Rules. Can't use cameos. Can't use famous actors sons for lead roles. Can't use a clearly racist character in a funny way because that means you're racist. Can't have a gay character be stereotypical. Can't pay for Tom Waits to be on set for a day. That character exists in the story for one scene...but your rules say the actor can't be TOO famous. Famous people need as much screentime as possible, right?

How can you watch so many movies yet are so confused and offended by the most basic of casting concepts?

I'm not rules based at all dude, I'm just telling you how I react to these kinds of things. For me the overuse of familiar faces in films can sometimes have an adverse effect. Casting famous screen grabbers in roles which aren't written very well and therefore rely almost entirely on the magnetism of the actors may not work. It certainly didn't for me this time. I think it would've been a (slightly) better film if better actors were employed in lead roles and random acting superstars weren't cast in underwritten side-roles. I prefer unfamiliar faces and better written roles. That's all.

And I also won't get further into the discussion about the use of racist/stereotypical characters here, there has been plenty of things written about that online, but given how the discussion went on the trans issue with Chapelle, I just think it's a bit of a waste of time. ;)

To paraphrase the legendary wide receiver and all round blowhard Keyshawn Johnson:

Just give me the ball and watch the damn movie! :D

Adidasss apparently hates when racism is negatively portrayed.

Very nice of you to stick me in a box like that.

I mean, whenever I see a rape happen in a film, I just can't get over the fact that the director would include such an offensive character in a film.

A Field in England

A psychedelic folk horror flick set during the English Civil Wars. I'll leave it to others to decide whether Ben Wheatley is good enough to pull off his very ambitious designs and just say that I enjoyed most of it. Maybe upon rewatch will get the third act too.

https://decider.com/wp-content/uploa...6&h=335&crop=1